Arts: Musical Motifs in 'Tosca' - nytimes.com/video 

Excellent analysis, which can only enhance one's listening experience. I have often considered the complexity with which Scarpia's role is written - for a character frequently written off as a monster, he certainly has some gloriously positive music to sing! Tito Gobbi, the best (understatement) interpreter of the role, discusses aspects of Scarpia's complexity in his book on Italian opera.

I really like the Madonna chords explanation.

There may be no other musician who knows more about opera that Mr. Tommasini. Bravo.

This was really interesting, thanks for posting all these vids, NYT!

Thank you so much, this is exactly what I need for the German music Abitur

Thank you for your intro to Tosca.

Hello, will there be other videos of motifs in this opera?

This guy is explaining music. People who are playing instruments should at least know what they're playing, both in technique and music.

What you call "Scarpia's fandango" is an interesting interpretation but incorrect. What it really is is the combined motifs of Scarpia and the Sacristan.

@IdoNOTlikeMichael Have you even seen Tosca?

So he goes on for seven minutes about the one theme everybody's familiar with anyway: Scarpia's. Would it have killed him to include Tosca and Mario's themes?

@IdoNOTlikeMichael It is this sort of elitism that makes classical music so inaccessible.